Polin Park, no more pimping

Matt Tully of the Star finally has written a heavy-duty column on the crooked, wretched Polin Park deal.

see link: http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060913/COLUMNISTS19/609130476

To his credit, he's got a list of names of investors for the proposed likker lounge 300 East at the Carson Center -- with a damning photo that shows the place is ready to open up for business any day, despite numerous zoning and other permit violations. Then there's the history: the bar's investors were willing to take a park out for parking, while the mayor, etc., did nothing.

What comes across loud and clear in Tully's listing of names -- and readers love names, so way to go -- is that this is a case of cronyism and good-ol-boy, good-ol-gal networking, right up to the head of the city-county council Monroe Gray, whose wife is an investor. Everybody is related or married to somebody else or on some board with each other or on the City-County Council.

I'll take it another step -- altho she was not mentioned in Tully's story, Belle T. Choate is the head of the Marion County Alcoholic Beverage Board, and she ultimately will get to hear the request for this club's liquor license. She is the wife of Sarge Visher, Rep. Julia Carson's chief of staff. Some people have argued that Rep. Carson is neither responsible for this mess nor in charge of it, but everybody involved is ultimately tied to her. These are her people.

Finally, I'm told that this whole thing might have been derailed if Center Township Trustee Carl Drummer had been humble enough to take his request for such an establishment to his board. Instead he just acted independently with his buddies. Talk about hubris.

As a resident of Putnam, I don't have a dog in this fight per se. But distance does provide some perspective, and what is most clear is that where there is smoke, there's fire. How about running down some of the other crooked deals some of these characters have passed on. Judy Conley, wife of city-county councilman King "Ro" Conley, springs to mind. She's the Metropolitan Development Commission hearing officer who has refused to listen to the recommendations of that staff and totally ignored comprehensive plan issues to push thru suspect deals. Where's the story on her?

Here's another observation: The blogs and neighborhood activists have owned this story from the beginning, digging in and advancing it to the next step, while the Star slumbered. Again, a tip of the hat to Clarke Kahlo, who was the only remonstrator to show up at the original hearing.

Credit also goes to the tireless Gary Welch of Advance Indiana and also to the take-no-prisoners Indiana Minority Report, which has a refreshing, in-your-face black conservative point of view (and a political axe to grind against Carson).

Here is what the Minority Report had to say today:

"The Ghetto Mafia EXPOSED

Who are the low-life's that tore down a park for toddlers and young children to build an exclusive parking lot for a tavern/bar? Who built a tavern in a public building without permits, a tavern that now possesses over ten violations?

Here is the list:

1) Lacy Johnson

2) His girlfriend/lover Patzetta Trice

3) Indiana Black Expo President, Joyce Rogers -- for a sample of what she has to offer our city see the link to the right titled "The Real State of Our Black Youth in Indianapolis".

4) City-County Council President Monroe Gray's wife Theresa Gray

5) Bill Mays, who unlike Attorney Lacy Johnson, was not "bold enough" to have Nancy Jewell, President of the Indiana Minority Health Coalition, be a partner, at least he has a "tiny" bit of respect for Rose Mays.

6) Al Oaks

As most of us suspected, this is just a tavern where they can hang out with their women in a "private" setting,

sell peashakes and get plastered. The Marion County Ghetto Mafia is in full force and EXPOSED.

What's that song? No More Mr. Nice guy. You all have PIMPED our community enough. We don't need anymore clubs, peashakes or drugs."

The times, they are a changin. Or at least, the times, they are a being challenged.